Air ambulances to lower cost of flying organs

Mumbai: An air ambulance service will be launched in Maharashtra and other states in August, promising to bring down the cost of flying organs to Rs 2.2 lakh. At present, organs for transplant patients are usually transported by road (if distances between centres are short) or by chartered aircraft, which costs Rs 6 lakh for an hour of flying time. Air ambulances will ensure that freshly removed organs from brain dead donors reach the intended recipients within the golden period of six hours.

The service is to be launched by the city-based MAB Aviation Private Ltd in cooperation with the UAE-based Radius Circle. An MoU of Rs 10 crore was signed between the two companies at the Make In India Week on Wednesday.

Mumbai's hospitals routinely perform organ transplants as patients from smaller cities flock here for critical surgeries. Mandar Bharde, managing director, MAB Aviation, said that every day the company gets 10 domestic inquiries for air ambulances, out of which nine are turned down.

Industry sources said congestion at metropolitan airports is an issue that needs to be dealt with for an air ambulance service to operate effectively.

"Looking into the potential for air ambulance services and the growing trend of foreign-based patients coming to India for health treatments, we have decided to start three aircraft initially, which will be based in airports such as Aurangabad, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Mysore, with a control room in Mumbai," he said. "The government of Maharashtra has decided to open airports in smaller cities for our service. We have plans to increase our fleet to 10 aircraft."

As per the plans, the government will reserve one of the aircraft. Each aircraft will have ventilators, oxygen cylinders and doctors, besides space to accommodate a patient's relatives.